Nepali politicians often accuse foreign powers of meddling in the country’s internal affairs, but they seldom bother to furnish substantive evidence to back their allegations. This buttresses the public perception that such provocative statements are made just to divert public attention to cover up their own failures.

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday accused foreign powers of meddling in federal and provincial elections held on November 20, while addressing a gathering of journalists close to the Maoist party in Lalitpur.

“If there has been an intervention by a foreign power, someone like Dahal, who is himself in a position of authority, should take the lead in investigating it,” Retd Major General of Nepal Army and security expert Binoj Basnet told the Post. “Public expects evidence when a person in authority makes big claims. If not, this will be seen as no more than a diversionary tactic to cover up their electoral failure.”

Dahal’s statement has come at a time when the diplomatic community in Kathmandu has become curious about the next president of Nepal and there are reports of some diplomats holding meetings with top Nepali leaders, expressing their interest in new-government formation.

In the November 20 elections, the strength of the Maoist Centre shrunk drastically, even as the party forged an electoral as well as governing alliance with the Nepali Congress and other political parties. The party’s strength in the House of Representatives decreased to 32 seats from the 53 seats it had won in 2017. That has built pressure on Dahal to prove his leadership in the party.

This is not the first time Dahal has tried to shift the blame on external forces on certain issues. He often accuses foreigners when he finds himself in a tricky situation in party politics or when he has to hide his own failings.

When he resigned from the prime minister’s post in 2009 after failing to sack the army chief, he blamed foreign hands. Madhav Kumar Nepal succeeded Dahal. The Maoist leader then launched an agitation against the new government, terming it ‘a puppet coalition remotely controlled by foreign powers.’ But, the weeks-long general strike, which was aimed at unseating the ‘puppet government’, had to be stopped, without any achievements.

“Blaming others for his failures has long since become a habit of Dahal,” a CPN (Maoist Centre) office-bearer told the Post on the condition of anonymity. “Instead of trying to understand real problems and various other aspects of elections, pointing fingers at others for his own failures won’t lead us anywhere in the days ahead.”

On Sunday too Dahal didn’t divulge details while accusing the foreign powers of meddling in Nepal’s elections.

“We have been participating in the election since 2008, but I had never witnessed such a high degree of foreign interference where foreign powers carefully choose who to depose and who to elect,” Dahal said. “All previous elections have been announced and run by the Nepalis, but it wasn’t the case this time around. Although this is a serious matter, I won’t go into further details.”

Dev Gurung, the general secretary of the Maoist Centre, argues that although there is hard evidence of intervention, it cannot be used as proof as various non-state players were involved. He, however, hinted that emergence of new political forces had become possible with the backing of foreign forces.

“Any political party requires time to evolve. Quick birth of a new political outfit in Nepal is not possible without some kind of foreign intervention,” Gurung told the Post.

But political observers questioned why a government, with the Maoist Centre as its vital component, didn’t take necessary measures to stop the meddling if there was any.

“If that was the situation, was the government aware of it? If it was, what measures did it take?” Mohan Krishna Shrestha, the former chief of protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a former ambassador of Nepal to France, asked while talking to the Post. “If there is evidence of foreign meddling, it should be made public.”

He added that if top leaders make such accusations without substantive evidence, they lose public trust.

However, Dahal is not the only top leader to accuse foreign powers of meddling in Nepal's internal matters. Such accusations have previously been made by leaders of other parties as well. No one has, however, offered any convincing evidence to support their claims.

KP Sharma Oli, when he was being criticised from both within and without the then ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) its split in 2020, had claimed that conspiracies were being hatched both in Kathmandu and New Delhi to unseat him.

There are many other instances where Oli has accused foreign powers of interfering in the country’s internal affairs, but again without furnishing any substantive evidence.

Similarly, five former prime ministers of Nepal—Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal and Baburam Bhattarai—had back in June 2021 issued a joint statement claiming foreign interference in the internal politics of Nepal.

The statement cautioned against foreign influence. “Nepal and Nepalis should solely be deciding on the country’s internal affairs,” said the statement. “We urge everyone to remain alert against any sort of direct or indirect foreign influence and interference in the country’s politics and internal affairs.”

But the allegation made by the former prime ministers was again light on evidence.

“There is a tendency among our politicians to manufacture enemies to shift the blame whenever they do something wrong,” Bishnu Rijal, a central committee member of the CPN-UML, told the Post. “In the past, the palace used to be often cited as a power allegedly working behind the curtains to destabilise democratic politics. At present, in its absence, foreign powers are often accused of doing the same.”